I’ve been using piped. It’s pretty fast from my (limited) experience. It doesn’t have the ability to comment, but core features like playlist creation exist. There’s also an android app front-end available from f-droid called LibreTube.
That actually sounds really sick. I’ve been learning C myself. (Yes, I know it’s a little outdated).
Well congrats on the baby!
I’d like chickens and a garden some day too, but I’ll have to wait until I can manage to buy a house. Sounds great though.